Kaua'i crash victim was 'wonderful lawyer'
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Rescuer: Victims probably died instantly |
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Yesterday's confirmation that all five on board died following Friday's tour helicopter crash on Kaua'i was not what the parents of passenger Thomas J. Huemmer had hoped to hear.
Earlier in the day, Carole and Frank Huemmer were still clinging to hope that their 36-year-old son was still alive.
Huemmer
"You've got to think positively," Frank Huemmer said by telephone yesterday morning from Brecksville, Ohio.
But the crushing news emerged in the afternoon as a recovery crew reached the wreckage of the Bali Hai Helicopter Tours aircraft at the 2,700-foot elevation of Kaua'i's central mountains and began removing the bodies. The crash victims' names have not been formally released.
Thomas J. Huemmer, an attorney from Avon, Ohio, was on the 45-minute sightseeing tour with his 30-year-old girlfriend, Tamara Zytkowski of Westlake, Ohio. Also on board was a couple from Germany. The pilot was a former member of the India air force and had flown with Bali Hai for only a couple of months.
Frank Huemmer described his son as a "hard-working, high-quality individual."
"He was a fun-loving guy with a strong work ethic and strong values," he said.
Thomas Huemmer was on his first trip to Hawai'i, accompanying Zytkowski, her sister and her parents. The sister and parents had flown on an earlier helicopter tour and were waiting for Huemmer and Zytkowski to return. When their helicopter didn't appear, the woman's parents took another helicopter to the area where the crash occurred, but were unable to confirm anything, Frank Huemmer said.
The Huemmers received a phone call in Ohio from Zytkowski's father at about 2 p.m. Saturday telling him authorities on Kaua'i were launching a search for the missing aircraft.
Huemmer said it's been difficult coping with the prolonged uncertainty of the event, as search efforts were hampered for several days because of wind and rain.
The Huemmers were following the saga on the Web, and when they saw a photo of the wreckage in Sunday's online edition of The Honolulu Advertiser, they could clearly see the helicopter's fuselage.
"It gives us hope with the fuselage intact. Maybe the trees softened the fall," he said, adding: "We're clinging to hope."
But it was only hope.
The younger Huemmer grew up in Brecksville, graduated with honors from Villanova University and earned his law degree from Case Western Reserve in 1994. He worked as a litigation attorney for the large law firm of Wickens Herzer Panza Cook & Batista in Avon, Ohio.
"He was a super kid," said his mom, Carole Huemmer. "This is mind-boggling this could happen."
Dave Herzer, attorney for Wickens Herzer Panza Cook & Batista, yesterday provided a statement that called Huemmer "great young man, and a wonderful lawyer."
The Huemmers declined to talk about Zytkowski, citing privacy issues. She was a nurse manager in the Post Acute Care Unit at the Cleveland Clinic. Staff there declined to comment yesterday.
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
